Audit Finds Almost 5,000 Untested Sexual Assault Evidence Kits

An audit by the office of Attorney General Josh Hawley has found that law enforcement agencies and health care providers in Missouri are retaining at least 4,889 untested sexual-assault evidence “kits.”

According to preliminary results of the audit, law enforcement agencies had about 3,701 untested kits and health care providers had 1,188 kits.

The actual overall number could be higher because not all 337 agencies that participated in the audit were able to determine how many sexual-assault kits they have, and not every agency responded to Hawley’s audit request, according to the report. Hawley said he believed a majority of agencies participated and that he was happy with the number of responses.

The audit, announced in November 2017, also found that health care providers lacked clear guidelines on how to notify or transmit the kits to law enforcement agencies. For their part, law enforcement agencies also lacked clear guidelines about when to submit the kits to crime labs for testing, Hawley said.